The Obama Way, Rich Must Pay

President Obama’s ego is bigger than the office of President of the United States and that’s the problem because he’s more concerned with himself than leading the country. As four-term Congressman Bobby Rush, who defended his seat against Obama in 2000 remarked in the book the Amateur, “Obama believes in Obama.”

Since Obama took office, unemployment has remained above 8% for over 40 straight months. The Labor Department's June jobs report revealed the jobless rate stuck in neutral at 8.2% with a paltry 80,000 jobs created and black unemployment jumped to 14.4%. Despite the fact the president can’t make a case why he deserves re-election, he consistently conveys arrogance to the American people that says, “I can do whatever I want.”

Ramping up his re-election campaign, Obama cherry picks winners and losers among Americans to win votes, pitting groups against each other (gays vs. heterosexuals in his support for gay marriage, Hispanics in his executive order to grant amnesty to illegals, union workers vs. everyone else in his bailout of the auto industry and attempt to block Boeing from moving to a non-union plant in South Carolina.) Days after Friday’s June jobs report was released, the Detractor in Chief, President Obama, tried to change the topic from his lousy economic record to class warfare in a Monday White House appearance.

In his divide and conquer fashion, Monday Obama picked the middle class over everyone else. After casting blame on “the other party” for the “stalemate” in Washington, Obama declared Congress must “pass a bill extending the [Bush] tax cuts for the middle class” because “they deserve that certainty.” Evidently, the rest of Americans don’t. Obama wants the Bush tax cuts for the middle class to be paid for by raising taxes on higher earners, those making $250,000 or more. Obama believe wealth redistribution is the right thing to do, make another class subsidize prosperity for everyone else. The top 5% of Americans pay 60% of all taxes while 51% of Americans pay no taxes. It’s clear who is paying their fair share of taxes and who isn’t.

Economists agree now is the wrong time to raise taxes on anyone when with zero job and economic growth. Obama himself admitted: “The last thing we want to do is raise taxes during a recession,” yet this is what Obama pushes for again, and again. Conspicuously absent from the president’s middle class fairy tale was any mention of the how the Obamacare tax penalty for not carrying health insurance will wipe out any Bush tax cut. But curiously, Obama doesn’t like talking about his shining $2.7trillion legacy.If his “core mission” was “to put people back to work,” Obama would “cancel all tax increases in 2013,” noted the Wall Street Journal and reform the tax code. This would encourage businesses to hire and put more money in all Americans’ wallets, not a precious few called the middle class.

From day one, Obama has commanded tax hikes on higher earners in the 2009 and 2010 budget negotiations and the 2011 debt ceiling battle. Congressional Republicans, House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have repeatedly said talk of tax increases is a non-starter to any negotiations. In an attempt to stick it to Republicans even more, Obama declared, “As soon as that gets done, we can continue to have a debate about whether it’s a good idea to also extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.” I’m sure Republicans in Congress laughed out loud in unison. That’s like saying Obama will tackle debt reduction, never gonna happen!

Even some Democrats expressed an aversion to Obama’s soak the rich, tax hike plan. The right thing for Obama to do and we know he’s obsessed with “doing the right thing,” would be to end his $5 trillion spending spree, tackle tax reform and debt reduction. Instead Obama ignored the Simpson Bowles debt reduction plan, a commission he created, and the bipartisan Congressional Super Committee budget negotiations both of which recommended an overhaul of the tax code.

By continuing to demand tax hikes on higher earners, small businesses included, Obama looks like an amateur, making a cheap political move to stir up his left wing base for votes when he knows it doesn't have a prayer’s chance in hell of passing Congress. “It’s time that we learned the lessons of our past and lay the foundation for a better future,” president Obama concluded Monday. Indeed his words couldn’t be more prophetic and the American people are probably thinking the same thing, that mistakes can be corrected.

Crystal Wright is a black conservative woman living in Washington, D.C. Some would say she is a triple minority: woman, black and a Republican living in a Democrat dominated city. By day, Crystal is a communications consultant and editor and publisher of the new website, www.conservativeblackchick.com. Ms. Wright holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Georgetown University and a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University.